Tallies, totals and other trend data in the freight transportation realm
6/9/2021
-17.8
FTR’s Shippers Conditions Index (SCI) for March fell to -17.8, its lowest reading on record, FTR reported on May 21. The March reading was more than five points lower than February’s, “reflecting an across-the-board decline month over month in the components that make up the SCI,” FTR officials said. Added Todd Tranausky, FTR’s vice president of rail and intermodal: “While May and June are expected to be the worst months for shippers as rate increases in truck and rail hit their peak for the year, it is possible that the tight conditions could persist for longer. Capacity is expected to remain a constraining factor for transportation through the end of 2021 as truck and rail each struggle to regain employees lost during the pandemic. Strong consumer and industrial demand means freight volumes will remain strong at the same time, setting up a challenged market for shippers over the next few months.”
0.3
American Trucking Associations’ (ATA) advanced seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index decreased 0.3% in April after increasing 2.3% in March, the association announced on May 18. “The outlook is solid for tonnage going forward as the country approaches pre-pandemic levels of activity, with strong economic growth in key areas for trucking – including retail, home construction and even manufacturing,” ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said on May 18. He added: “Trucking’s biggest challenges are not on the demand side, but on the supply side, including difficulty finding qualified drivers.”
3 to 4
“Aggressive fiscal stimulus during the pandemic has supported the recovery, but this stimulus-induced growth is not likely sustainable and has arguably pulled forward demand (examples: U.S. debt has increased by ~$4.5T, growth multiplier from consumption-oriented stimulus debatable, more states ending enhanced unemployment benefits early),” wrote Baird Equity Research Senior Research Analyst Garrett Holland in a May 27 report. “…The waning stimulus benefits will be headwinds for economic growth in 2022/2023, amounting to an estimated ~3% to 4% points of GDP growth (excluding any future stimulus) and should start the normalizing process for freight demand.”
4.2
“The overall consumer price index was up 4.2 percent in the year ending in April 2021, its biggest gain in more than 13 years. Federal Reserve officials and many economists insist this higher inflation will be temporary. Others aren’t so sure, and if they’re right, the Fed could find itself having to decide, much sooner than expected, whether to raise interest rates to calm inflation.” — from the Association of American Railroads’ Rail Time Indicators, issued June 4
4.7
U.S. rail freight revenues will “advance 4.7% per year in nominal terms” through 2025, according to Freight by Rail: United States, a report released by Freedonia Focus Reports. Expansion in manufacturers’ shipments and U.S. trade growth “will drive demand for rail freight transportation,” The Freedonia Group said in a May 14 statement.
19
In April, overall new business volume for the equipment finance sector was $9.8 billion, up 19 percent year-over-year from new business volume during the same 2020 period, according to the Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation (ELFA). Volume was up 5 percent month-to-month from $9.3 billion in March. Year-to-date, cumulative new business volume was up 4 percent compared to the same 2020 period. “The economy and business activity still have a ways to go to return to pre-pandemic levels, but what we see so far in terms of capital equipment investment is indeed encouraging as we head into the summer months,” ELFA President and CEO Ralph Petta said.
51.1
Ports hadn’t reported May numbers yet, but Global Port Tracker projected the month at 2.32 million twenty-foot equivalents (TEU), which would be up 51.1 percent from the same 2020 period and set another new record for the largest number of containers in a single month, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released June 8 by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates. June is forecast at 2.13 million TEU, up 32.8 percent year-over-year; July at 2.19 million TEU, up 14.2 percent; August at 2.26 million TEU, up 7.5 percent; September at 2.14 million TEU, up 1.7 percent, and October at 2.07 million TEU, down 6.5 percent for the first year-over-year decline since July 2020, NRF and Hackett said.
350
Hamilton Container Terminal (HCT), in partnership with the Hamilton-Oshawa Port Authority and Desgagnes, is taking the first step in developing a container feeder service between Hamilton and Montreal. Docking at Hamilton's Pier 14, the M/V Sedna Desgagnes is due to make the new service's first voyage June 10, HCT officials said on June 3. The container feeder vessel will carry about 350 containers originating in the GTHA from Hamilton to Montreal. The containers will be transloaded in Montreal to other vessels destined for various overseas ports. June’s sailing is expected to be followed by a second Hamilton-Montreal voyage in July, building up to 20+ sailings in 2022, HCT officials said.
23,600
In May, North American Class 8 net orders “cooled off,” totaling 23,600 units, FTR reported on June 3. Orders, which had “been on a torrid pace for eight months,” are returning to “a pace more in line with seasonal trends,” FTR officials said.
237,960
“The rail traffic recovery from the pandemic continues. U.S. carloads of grain, food, lumber, paper, scrap metal and several other categories were higher in April 2021 than in either April 2020 or April 2019. Total carloads averaged 237,960 per week in April 2021, the most since November 2019.” — RESIDCO email newsletter issued June 2. RESIDCO specializes in structured solutions for acquisitions, financing and dispositions regarding rail equipment leasing in North America.
325,000
The pandemic has “exacerbated inequities” in urban freight and the delivery of goods, officials from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) say. With the support of a $325,000 National Science Foundation grant, RPI researchers plan to develop mathematical models to enable them to study how the urban freight gap could be closed, the institute said on June 1. They’ll consider the potential effects of traffic network and route reconfiguration, the sustainability of offering free or low shipping fees, and the supply chain costs associated with healthy food items. They also will explore what policies could support “equitable market change,” RPI said.
7.01 million
Through May, new light vehicle sales were 7.01 million, up from 5.31 during the same 2020 period and 6.89 million in the same 2019 period, according to the Association of American Railroads’ Rail Time Indicators, issued June 4. Light trucks — pickups, SUVs and minivans — accounted for 77% of those sales, a record high, AAR said.
1.7 billion
E2open Parent Holdings Inc., a network-based provider of a cloud-based, mission-critical, end-to-end supply chain management platform, announced May 27 that it would acquire BluJay Solutions, a cloud-based, logistics execution platform. BluJay is an integrated SaaS platform with comprehensive solutions for shippers, logistics service providers and freight forwarders. As of May 25, the stock and cash transaction was valued at $1.7 billion.